White House legal counsel Harriet Miers, once nominated by President George W. Bush for the U.S. Supreme Court, is resigning from the administration, Press Secretary Tony Snow said. Miers, 61, a longtime Bush confidante and adviser, will leave her job on Jan. 31 after six years at the White House. No successor has been named. ``She informed the president yesterday, and he has regretfully accepted her resignation,'' Snow said. Asked why Miers is leaving, Snow said, ``She's been here for six years. It's hard duty.''
In her letter of resignation, released by the White House, Miers says she is grateful for having served in Bush's administration and considers her leadership of the White House legal team ``a singular honor and pleasure.'' Helping screen Supreme Court nominees, even when her own failed, was among ``the most rewarding of my experiences,'' Miers wrote. ``Your commitment to nominating judges who will interpret the law and who know the proper role of a judge has made this nation stronger and our justice system fairer,'' she wrote.
Miers was a litigator in Texas for 26 years, representing companies including Microsoft Corp. and Walt Disney Co. and rising to co-managing partner of Locke Liddell & Sapp in Dallas. She was elected to a two-year term on the Dallas City Council in 1989. Miers has known Bush since the 1980s and worked as a lawyer on his 1994 campaign for governor of Texas. After Bush won the election, he tapped Miers to lead the Texas Lottery Commission. She came with Bush to Washington when he was elected president in 2000, serving first as his staff secretary, then as deputy chief of staff. |